Blogs

Is your hairdresser seething with hidden resentment? Do you subconsciously want to dominate the people who serve you? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, customers and hospitality workers engage in a game of status that plays out in their everyday encounters. "When we think about a service context in a high-end hospitality industry such as a spa, a luxury hotel or a cruise, the image that comes to our mind is a serene, peaceful setting with numerous friendly, empathetic...

Sad people are more likely to want to hug a teddy bear than seek out a visual experience such as looking at art. Hint: It has to do with our mammalian instincts. "Human affective systems evolved from mammalian affective systems, and when mammals are young and incapable of thinking, their brain systems have to make these pups able to perform the 'correct' behavior," say researchers Dan King (NUS Business School, Singapore) and Chris Janiszewski (University of Florida, Gainesville). One way the...

Consumers react strongly to their product choices being copied. They really dislike it when the copycat is someone similar to them, says new research. "Have you ever gone to a party only to learn upon arrival that another guest is wearing the same dress or shirt as you?" ask researchers Katherine White (University of British Columbia) and Jennifer J Argo (University of Alberta). The researchers looked at what happens when someone else copies a consumer's product choice. Although past research...

Previous studies have shown that customer satisfaction plays a key role in the health and future success of any company. When customers are satisfied, they keep coming back to the same store and invite their friends to do the same. Now, a new study from the University of Missouri has found that CEOs who pay attention to employees' job satisfaction are able to boost both customer satisfaction and "repurchase intentions," or the number of customers that intend to purchase products from the store....

The Playing for Change movement has launched a new video, global rendition of the classic Rolling Stones track, “Gimme Shelter.” Playing for Change is a multimedia music project created by the American producer and sound engineer Mark Johnson with his Timeless Media Group, that seeks to bring together musicians from around the world. Playing For Change also created a non-profit organisation called the Playing For Change Foundation which builds music schools for children around the world. The...

For the first time, a seminal scripture of Ayurveda – the most ancient and important system of medicine in India – is being textually analysed and historically explored piece by piece through the existing manuscripts. The project aims to reconstruct a more authentic version of this treatise and its content. Methods from evolutionary biology are also being used in order to assess the originality of the different versions of the text, which was written in Sanskrit. Preserving health and curing...

People who read vivid print advertisements for fictitious products actually come to believe they've tried those products. "Exposing consumers to imagery-evoking advertising increases the likelihood that a consumer mistakenly believes he/she has experienced the advertised product, and subsequently produces attitudes that are as strong as attitudes based on genuine product experience," say researchers Priyali Rajagopal (Southern Methodist University) and Nicole Montgomery (College of William and...

So the moral guardians of Indian virtues have acted again. This time, with quite a heavy hand. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has ordered television channels not to broadcast "overtly sexual" deodorant adverts that use female models in racy storylines. What else can you expect from the ministry of Ambika Soni, who rose to fame and notoreity during the Emergency era? Soni's ministry has raised serious objections to advertisements of deodorants available under the brand names of Wild...

Innovative ads can help creative consumers break away from their existing thought patterns, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. These creative stimuli can affect the way consumers process information about different products. "Creative marketing stimuli are pervasive in the marketplace as marketers and advertisers scramble to break through the clutter to attract consumers' attention and win their approval," write authors Xiaojing Yang (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)...

I was a tad surprised when he told me that he wouldn’t be able to meet me late evening since it was late, and he would have to return home. You don’t always expect guys to rush homewards just because it is a trifle late. We had initially planned to meet early evening, but another appointment had held me up. So we caught up on phone, and fixed 8:30 the morrow morn for a tête-à-tête. Since you don’t expect things to move at the same pace in Kashmir as it does in Delhi, I took it easy. I was late...